Japan looking to fund more PH infra projects
Japan has expressed its intent to provide over 42 billion yen (P20.32 billion) for two major infrastructure projects in the Philippines, the Finance department said.
Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez 3rd was told of this during last week’s meeting of the Philippines-Japan Joint Committee on Infrastructure Development and Economic Cooperation, the department said in a statement.
Dominguez said that Japanese officials informed him of their government’s intention to provide official development assistance of about 38.1 billion yen for the MRT Line 3 Rehabilitation Project and a supplemental loan of some 4.37 billion yen (P2.11 billion) for the second phase of the New Bohol Airport Construction and Sustainable Environmental Protection Project, “subject to the necessary Philippine and Japanese Government approval processes”.
Besides the two projects, the committee also confirmed an updated candidate list of projects that would be granted Japanese funding.
The projects include the Philippine National Railways (PNR) North 2 Project, which will run from Malolos in Bulacan to Clark in Pampanga; the PNR South Commuter Line from Tutuban in Manila to Calamba in Laguna; the Pasig-Marikina River Channel Improvement Project, which aims to mitigate flooding in Metro Manila; and the Road Network Development Project in Conflict-Affected Areas in Mindanao.
During the meeting, Dominguez expressed the Philippine’s appreciation for the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s (JICA) efforts streamline the approval process, along with hopes that “the same efficient approach would be applied to the processing of other projects in the pipeline”.
Philippine officials, meanwhile, shared progress made to help speed up approvals back home, such as establishing the Project Facilitation, Monitoring and Innovation Task Force and adopting measures to address right-of-way and resettlement issues.
For the railway projects to be implemented with Japanese funding support, the Finance department noted that both sides agreed to continue trilateral consultations regarding the co-financing arrangement between the JICA and the Asian Development Bank for the PNR North 2 project and the PNR South Commuter Line.
“We are targeting to sign the exchange of notes for both projects in November 2018. We will also exert efforts to achieve the challenging goal of making the North rail section partially operational by 2022,” Dominguez said.
The South rail section will require more time because of the existing railway and complexity of the project design, the Finance department said.
Lastly, officials also reaffirmed their commitment to ensure the partial operability of the Metro Manila Subway by May 2022, subject to progress on various concerns such as land acquisition and the relocation of utilities.
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